greAT hyMN !

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In the first verse, the greatest of

acharyas...Sri Adi Shankara Bhagavatpada, has elaborated about

the entire concept of srividya and it's underlying

philosophy.This shloka is the synopsis or even the essense of the

entire hymn.It becomes important to trace out the origin

of this incomparable hymn to completely appreciate

it and understand it's significance.<br><br> Various

of Adi Shankara's biographies describe the origin of

this hymn.Some of them are Shankara

Digvijaya,Madhaveeya shankara Digvijaya, Sayanacharya's account of

Acharya and many or most others.This hymn has been quoted

in all important tantric works by authorities like

Bhaskararaya,swami punyananda yati,and even Arthur avlon.Though some

modern scholars doubt the authorship of Adi

Shankara,most others agree.<br>Sri Anantha krishna shastry,

noted scholar whose commentaries on lalitha and vishnu

sahasranama have been incomparable(who later on went on to

become the shankaracharya of badari peetham)....has

stated that he found the manuscripts of this work more

than any other written work ,from across kanyakumari

to china and germany, and from kutch,,,,afghan to

far east.He is of the opinion that only a work by a

universal authority like Acharya will command so much

respect and so many commentaries, some written till

today.It is quoted in important works like Sharada tilika

,skanda purana(where there is a prediction of Acharya's

Avatar),Sri vidyarnava tantra,Varivasya rahasya,Saubhagya

bhaskara,Nithyotsava paddhati etc.Also the monastic unbroken lineage

of Acharya's starting from Adi Shankara to the

present day are maintaining the authorship of

Acharya.<br>This has several commentaries...(take any number ,we

still fall short to completely follow the immense depth

of the hymn.)Some are : Laksmidhari by

lakshmidhara,dindima

bhashya,Arunamodiini,Parvatavardhini,padarthachandrika and many more.<br>The

tradition has other

folklore about the origin of this great hymn.It is said

that when Acharya was once transported to kailasa

during samadhi state, he found this great hymn written

there on a waa , which was used by the

triads...brahma-vishnu-shiva for their daily worship of mother.Shankara began

to read and instantly mastered what he read.However

nandi was alrmed lest this great hymn be published in

the world of mortals and began rubbing it off from

the bottom.<br>Shanakara was able to read just 41

verses and composed his own of the rest 51. The first 41

....referred to as Ananda lahari is full of subtle concepts of

Tantra,Dhyana,Manta,Yantra,Prayogas etc all in agreement with Advaita

philosophy...granting the status of a full fledged tantra to it.The

second half uses all of the known finesse of sanskrit

grammar to describe the beauty of lalitha

mahatripurasundari from head to toe , in a way never possible before

nor i think possible in future.Theer is a marked

difference netween the styles of the two halfs.<br>The

concepts of srividya dealt here are similar to those in

saubhagya sootras and subhagodaya composed by

gaudapaadacharya the guru of shankara's guru govinda

bhagavatpaadacharya.<br>contd.................